He also stirred controversy when he said on video that: “I’m not sexist”.
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‘The circumstances in which these comments were made suggest that no criminal offense has taken place and this matter will not be investigated any further’. Making me a good cup of tea, that’s what I believe.
The Olympic and world heptathlon champion is nominated alongside world heavyweight boxing champion Fury for the BBC honour, which will be presented in Belfast on December 20.
The Ukip leader said an attempt to ban Mr Fury from the contest by petitioners would “backfire”.
The 27-year-old has remained defiant throughout the ensuing public backlash – with calls for the boxer to be removed from the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award shortlist – and on Thursday he made another impassioned defence of his polarising views when he denied he was a homophobe while also insisting he was “uniting the world”.
“Our challenger was Vyacheslav Glazkov, but instead Fury’s gone and signed a rematch clause with Wladimir Klitschko”, Lindsey Tucker, championship chairman at the IBF, said according to a report by BBC Sport. People in my opinion should be able to have their views and I bet you it’s all the same people that want to ban Trump from coming into this country. I’m still the No 1 heavyweight boxer in the world. “I haven’t any enemies, I don’t hate any race, color, creed, generation, nobody”.
In comments reported by Phil D. Jay of World Boxing News, IBF Chairman Lindsey Tucker had this to say regarding the organization’s controversial move.
“We’ve got Jamaicans in there, Pakistanis, Indians, Christians, Muslims”. “What about that? Why don’t they broadcast that?”
“We don’t hear about the good things that I’m doing – we just hear about the comments that people want to twist and want to make me sound like I hate people and that I hate the world”.
“My worry is if this is allowed to carry on, at best it amounts to turning a blind eye to the things he has said and the offence that he has caused, and at worst it could be interpreted as condoning it. I don’t think that that is right”.
Asked if he thought he could win the SPOTY award, his answer was: “John 3:16, for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son”.
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The gay English-born Northern Ireland-based journalist said he wrote to the BBC director general Tony Hall to question Fury’s nomination after the boxer made homophobic and sexist comments publically before and after his title-winning bout against Wladimir Klitschko two weeks ago.
